Assignment 4A: Forming An Opportunity Belief

Forming An Opportunity Belief

My Belief: I believe an opportunity exists when it comes to tangled earphones. I know I can speak from personal experience that this is the most annoying thing that I encounter each and every day. My earbuds for my iPhone magically tangle in my backpack each time I take them out, and my other earbuds for my laptop double the mess. A lot of solutions found online explain different ways of tying your earbuds so you can place them in a bag without getting them tangled. However, for people that are always on the go, how to tie your earbuds are probably the last thought on their mind. There are also a few flimsy looking products online that seem to try and solve the solution, however if they truly were amazing, they would be all over campus. I am about 70% sure that this opportunity exists.

Prototypical Customer #1: 18 year old female UF college student 

• Q: Do you ever experience your earbuds tangling together?
• "Yes" 
• Q: When/How often?
• "Almost every time I use them, usually because I stuff them in my backpack" 
• Q: What do you do when you find your earbuds tangled?
• "I try to untangle them so I can listen" 
• Q: Do you use any preventative methods to avoid your earbuds getting tangled? Like what? Does it work?
• "I don't but I probably should" 
• Q: Do you think there can be a better way to address this issue?
• "Yes" 

Reflection: 

• She seems to be like what I envision the typical college student, constantly needing to untangle earbuds from their backpack each time they want to use them. However, I will note that she does have Airpods, wireless earbuds. Upon a further discussion, she did say that she still uses earbuds when she has to use her laptop, or when her Airpods run out of battery. 

Prototypical Customer #2: 18 year old male in the Air Force 

• Q: Do you ever experience your earbuds tangling together?
• "Yes"
• Q: When/How often?
• "Every time I try to use them"
• Q: What do you do when you find your earbuds tangled?
• "I untangle them, sometimes scream, cry, then do it"
• Q: Do you use any preventative methods to avoid your earbuds getting tangled? Like what? Does it work?
• "Yes, I roll them up, put them in a secure place, but they still get tangled up"
• Q: Do you think there can be a better way to address this issue?
• "Yes"

Reflection: Similar to the previous prototypical customer, there seems to be a need for a solution to this problem. Even by tying earbuds like it says online, they still somehow seem to get tangled. This young man seems to get quite agitated each time he has to untangle them. 

Prototypical Customer #3: 19 year old female at UF Student Rec 

• Q: Do you ever experience your earbuds tangling together?
• "Not these [wireless headphones], but I do have earbuds that tangle"
• Q: When/How often?
• "Usually whenever I grab them from my bag" 
• Q: What do you do when you find your earbuds tangled?
• "I have to untangle them"
• Q: Do you use any preventative methods to avoid your earbuds getting tangled? Like what? Does it work?
• "I try to wrap them around my fingers and put them away neatly, but it usually does not work"
• Q: Do you think there can be a better way to address this issue?
• "Yes"

Reflection: It is important to note that for people that use wireless earbuds at the gym would not be a target audience for this potential product to keep earbuds untangled. However, as noted by another prototypical customer, they usually have another pair of earbuds that they use for their laptop. 

Summary: I believe that the opportunity belief is still there. Actually, by going out and speaking to people, I have reinforced this opportunity being a real problem in the world that still needs to be solved. My new opportunity I believe is more accurate, because it has now taken into account that there are people that use Airpods and wireless earbuds that would not care much about this opportunity. However, for the majority of college students that still use earbuds to listen on their laptops, this is thriving opportunity. Entrepreneurs should greatly 'adapt' their opportunity based on customer feedback because it is ultimately the customer that is going to purchase the solution. Without going out and hearing what people have to hear about a problem, then an entrepreneur is taking a shot in the dark. Nothing can beat the feedback of potential customers.